Springfield vote due on cuts

Susan Palmer

Saturday

Jun 18, 2011 at 12:01 AM

SPRINGFIELD — The City Council will vote Monday on a stripped-down budget for the coming fiscal year that cuts 16 positions, based on projections that property taxes will grow less than 1 percent in fiscal year 2012.

It’s a bitter pill for a city that prides itself on service, said council President Joe Pishioneri. And it continues a downward trend. In 2009, Springfield had 445 full-time equivalent jobs. This year’s cuts brings the total to 422.

While department efficiencies will help make up for the loss of employees, Pishioneri thinks residents may notice a difference.

“Residents are going to need to accept that, while we’ve got a history of being ‘Johnny on the spot,’ Johnny’s not going to be there quite so fast,” he said.

The Public Works division, with the most employees, has seen the most significant cuts. The staff of 129 in 2009 is down to 110 for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

With the economic recovery expected to remain sluggish, the city initially assumed zero growth in property tax revenue, a much gloomier forecast assumption than usual, said Finance Director Bob Duey. In previous years, a 3 percent increase was the low-ball estimate.

But the 12-member budget committee — six city councilors and six community members — couldn’t quite embrace the zero growth notion, and proposed instead a 0.59 percent increase in property tax revenue for the coming year. That slim boost gave the committee enough money to add back a community service officer, one of three police department positions that had been proposed to be cut. The city hopes a federal grant in the coming year will allow them to add back a police officer position.

Most of the job cuts have come through attrition, voluntary resignations and early retirement.

The proposed $79 million operating budget is slightly less than this year’s $80 million operating budget, Duey said.

To help the city meet its budget goals, employees have agreed to a total of 2,500 hours of time off without pay in the coming year, for a savings of $74,000.

The police union signed a labor contract with the city that has no cost-of-living increases this year.

Two unions — the Oregon Public Employees Union/Service Employees International and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees — agreed to a phased implementation of new contracts with wage increases that brings city employees more in line with their peers in other communities.

A recent city study showed that its midpoint and top wages ranged from 4 percent to 8 percent below average for comparable communities, prompting increases in wages that are projected to cost about $788,000 over the next three years.

The city has yet to sign a contract with firefighters. The current agreement expires June 30.

Other budget challenges for the city: a 13 percent increase in the cost of providing medical insurance and an increase in the city’s contribution to the PERS retirement plan.

Making the cuts was a difficult exercise, said Councilor Sheri Moore. “We’re cutting people; we’re cutting back on programs that help people,” she said.

Among the decisions she struggled with: cutting funds for the Lane Regional Air Protection Agency, which has historically received funding from Springfield, Eugene and Lane County governments. Ultimately, Moore agreed to the LRAPA cut because state and federal agencies also provide funding to the local clean air agency.

It was also hard to agree to cuts for programs that help financially struggling community members, Moore said. The budget proposes to cut funds to the Human Services Commission from $91,000 to $83,000. That money gets distributed to a range of agencies providing housing, food and other services to community members in need.

Moore said the process reminded her of a time when she and her family were struggling financially and she and her husband sought advice from a financial counselor.

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